Why Excel Still Beats AI for Consistency and Reliability

Tony Phillips, an experienced Microsoft Office user with a background in linguistics and Hispanic studies, has been using Excel professionally for decades. He has worked as a document producer, data manager, and content creator for over ten years, and loves making spreadsheets and documents in his spare time. Tony has also used AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to help with Excel tasks, but he still prefers the traditional method of using formulas and functions.

According to Phillips, one of the main reasons he prefers Excel is that it allows him to apply a rule consistently to every row in a spreadsheet. For example, if he wants to pull the category associated with each transaction from another table, he can use XLOOKUP instead of asking AI to perform the operation. This way, the formula keeps working even if new data is added.

Phillips also notes that AI can only reliably determine an answer based on the information it has access to. If the answer depends on something outside the workbook, AI may produce a reasonable-sounding explanation but cannot guarantee its accuracy. He emphasizes the importance of verifying the result and checking every figure and calculation.